Settlement sought with heirs of Klimt painting

Work, valued at up to $25 million, was left behind by Felsoevary family when they fled Nazis

By AP 10 September 2014, 8:59 pm

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VIENNA — The present Austrian owners of a valuable Gustav Klimt painting said they plan to reach a fair settlement with Jewish heirs of the family who left the artwork behind as they fled the Nazis.

The “Bildnis Gertrud Loew” (Portrait of Gertrud Loew” is valued at up to €19.3 million euros ($25 million). It was abandoned by Gertrud Felsoevary and her family after Austria was annexed by Hitler’s Germany in 1938 and is now in the possession of the Klimt Foundation.

Detail from Gustav Klimt’s work ‘Bildnis Getrud Loew’ painted in 1902 with oil on canvas. (photo credit: Wikimedia/Public domain/PD-1923)

Foundation members said Wednesday that they want to reach a “fair and just” solution after a committee of experts deemed that the picture fell under Austrian restitution laws.

The foundation said it hopes to buy the portrait but also has left open its return to the heirs.